James has 3 hats, 2 pairs of shorts, and 5 shirts to chose from. If he wears exactly 1 of each item, how many different combinations (1 hat, 1 shirt, and 1 pair of shorts) can he choose to wear?
For each of the 3 choices of hat there are 2 choices of shorts. Therefore there are 3 * 2 combinations of hat and shorts. Each of these 3 * 2 combinations of hat and shorts can be combined with each of the 5 choices of shirt. Therefore the number of combinations of 1 hat, 1 shirt and 1 pair of shorts is given by: [tex]3\times2\times5=30\ different\ combinations.[/tex]
